Elsevier Paleoecological Research on Easter Island: Insights on Settlement, Climate Changes, Deforestation and Cultural Shifts

Paleocological Research on Easter Island: Insights on Settlement, Climate Changes, Deforestation and Cultural Shifts  examines the area’s climatic and ecological history, a topic not usually addressed in other literature. The book provides a thorough and synthetic account of all paleoecological works developed to date, including the latest discoveries. Finally, it attempts to match paleoecological evidence with the results of other disciplines creating a multidisciplinary framework. This approach to the field is ideal for researchers, university professors and graduate students in a varied range of disciplines and subdisciplines, including ecology, paleoecology, paleoclimatology, biogeography, sedimentology, and paleontology. Users will find synthesized information on Easter Island from the last millennia that will help pave the way towards an integrated interdisciplinary vision of the island’s environmental-ecological-cultural system as a complex functional unit. Human and environmental deterministic views are avoided and the Easter Island enigmas are analyzed under a holistic perspective of continuous feedbacks and synergies among the different components of the system. Review Synthesizes the available paleoecological knowledge on Easter Island over the last millennia, examining the island’s environmental-ecological-cultural systems From the Back Cover Easter Island (Rapanui) is one of the most remote and enigmatic places on Earth. Paleoecological Research on Easter Island synthesizes the available paleoecological knowledge on Easter Island for the last millennia to pave the way towards an integrated interdisciplinary vision of the islands environmental-ecological-cultural system as a complex functional unit. Human and environmental deterministic views are avoided and the Easter Island enigmas are analyzed under a holistic perspective of continuous feedbacks and synergies among the different components of the system. Paleocological Research on Easter Island first examines the areas climatic and ecological history, a topic that is not usually addressed in other literature on the island. It then provides a thorough and synthetic account of all paleoecological works developed to date including the latest discoveries. Finally, it attempts to match paleoecological evidence with the results of other disciplines, in the way towards a multidisciplinary framework. Paleoecological Research on Easter Island provides a multidisciplinary approach to the field making this a useful resource for researchers, university professors and graduate students of a varied range of disciplines and subdisciplines including ecology, paleoecology, paleoclimatology, biogeography, sedimentology, and paleontology and others who are interested in incorporating paleoecological knowledge in their investigations. About the Author Valentí Rull is a biologist with a PhD in paleoecology (1990). He is a Tenured Scientist of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) at the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera, Barcelona. He uses paleocological evidence to study the type and characteristics of biotic responses to environmental shifts, the natural and anthropogenic drivers of ecological change and the role of tectonics and environmental change on the origin of biodiversity. He also works on the contribution of paleoecology to biodiversity conservation. Dr. Rull has conducted his research on several temperate (Pyrenees, Azores Islands), tropical (Andes, Orinoco delta, Maracaibo basin, Gran Sabana, Pantepui) and subtropical (Easter Island) regions.